BELMOPAN, Mon. July 25, 2022

Last Wednesday, the Joint Public Accounts Committee (JPAC) held its third working meeting after four social partner senators penned a letter to the standing committee chairperson, Hon. Tracy Panton (Albert area representative), calling for a meeting to be held as soon as possible. Present at the meeting on Wednesday was the Financial Secretary, Joseph Waight, who was questioned about various matters by the members of the committee, including Panton; Jorge Espat, who was sitting in place of Julius Espat, and Senators Kevin Herrera and Janelle Chanona.

The matters discussed included the backlog in the preparation/issuance of Auditor General Reports and the delay in filling the Auditor General post that was vacated by Dorothy Bradley, as well as annual accounts that are to be submitted to the Auditor General under the Finance and Audit Reform Act.

A press release from the Office of the Clerk of the National Assembly noted, “The committee deliberated on the issue of the Auditor General’s post being vacant for far too long. The Committee agreed that the post must be filled with urgency and therefore measures will be taken by the JPAC to reach out to the Prime Minister’s Office, and by extension Members of the National Assembly, to have the vacancy filled without any further delay.”

The committee reaffirmed a decision for hearings to be convened in public (last Wednesday’s hearing was held in camera). They also agreed on a Work Plan, as well as the proposed meeting dates for the remainder of this Fiscal Year. Business Senator, Kevin Herrera, has said that he believes the JPAC should meet every two months.

“That committee now has a lot of work to do in terms of reviewing those spending. Now, I think the social partner senators became concerned that meetings have not been held as frequently as we think they should have been. And so, we wrote to the chair of the committee, the Honorable Tracy Panton, to try to get things back on track,” Senator Herrera said during an interview on July 12.

Hon. Panton had remarked, following the public release of the letter, that life-changing incidents in her personal life had caused delays to recently scheduled meetings, but the concern of her parliamentary colleagues could have been addressed via a simple phone call — noting that she did not receive a copy of the letter directly but only saw it making its rounds in the public domain.

Now that committee meetings are once again being held, JPAC is planning to nudge the Prime Minister to move forward in finding someone that could fill the post of Auditor General. The PM himself has hinted at having former Auditor General, Dorothy Bradley, occupy the post until a suitable candidate can be selected.